Most Orange County Public School students won’t be able to ride their e-bikes and e-scooters to campus next month, a unanimous Orange County School Board decided Tuesday evening.
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The decision prohibits the electric devices at public schools unless the student holds a valid learner’s permit or driver’s license, bans the fastest ones and bars charging them on campus.
About 11,000 students rode e-scooters and e-bikes to school last school year, according to an OCPS survey of families.
Maria Salamanca, the school board member who represents Lake Nona where an OCPS student died on an e-scooter in May, was the most vocal board member in support of the ban. It was needed, she said, because more nuanced approaches, such as traffic safety education and helmet enforcement at schools, would burden teachers and fail to solve the safety problems.
“It’s really dangerous. It’s not just the convenience of my kid gets to school faster. Truly, it’s not, and we have to think about the safety of an entire school district,” Salamanca said.
The rising popularity of the so-called electric micromobility devices among children and the subsequent rise in injuries and hospitalizations has left governments, and schools, nationwide and in Central Florida grappling with how and if to regulate them. The school board agreed to, but didn’t officially vote on, the ban last week.
Many parents say e-bikes and e-scooters help their children get to school, a welcome assist in a state where bus service isn’t provided unless families live at least two miles from campus.
Parent Devin Sylvester, one of nine people who spoke against a ban before the board’s vote, said he taught his son to ride safely.
“Whether or not a child uses an e-scooter or e-bike, it should be up to the parents. It shouldn’t be up to the school board,” he said. “If OCPS is concerned with how these are being used and how kids are using them, then they should educate.”
Board member Stephanie Vanos said she didn’t think anyone on the board wanted to ban the electric bikes and scooters but felt backed into a corner because neither state nor local governments have taken action.
“We have been forced into this situation because counties and cities have not acted on on this — and the state,” Vanos said.
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“I really truly believe that we’re going to be saving lives, and we can wait for the rest of the world to catch up to us,” Salamanca said.
Superintendent Maria Vazquez suggested the board could revisit the ban after the first nine weeks of the school year, allowing it to evaluate its impact and to assess whether other government agencies have acted.
In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed legislation that would have required e-bike and e-scooter riders to slow down around pedestrians and established a state task force to review risks, policy gaps and enforcement challenges. Now, any regulations fall to local governments.
Orange County commissioners said they may mandate helmets for riders 16 and younger and require riders to slow down when approaching pedestrians. A first draft of the proposal is to be discussed in September.
In May, commissioners watched a video shot by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office that showed a huge rush of students leaving Windermere High School on e-bikes, some riding dangerously, not wearing helmets and riding the wrong way through traffic.
Doctors say accidents involving e-bikes and e-scooters have jumped, both nationally and locally. Because the electric devices are faster and heavier than their traditional counterparts, serious injuries are more common.
The American College of Surgeons reported that over 20,000 people — many of them under the age of 14 — are injured riding e-bikes annually, numbers that are not only growing but also likely under-reported.
Rising eighth-grader Katelyn Weaver told the board she rides an e-scooter to school every day and said a ban won’t help keep students safe.
“What will likely happen is that students will ride these devices to school and instead of parking them safely in a school bike rack, they’ll have to find an alternative place to park them,” Katelyn said.
Mike Bustillos, a former OCPS teacher, said that students respond best when they are given responsibility and treated like adults — which he said a ban on e-bikes and e-scooters doesn’t do.
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“We should be letting them scoot. Let the kids scoot!” Bustillos said.